


you’re all i want (so much it’s hurting)

by BleedMeAMelody



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, It's important to the story, M/M, Meet-Cute, Minor Violence, Swearing, but nothing graphic i swear, excessive use of commas, just trust me, this is mostly just fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-08
Updated: 2017-05-08
Packaged: 2018-10-29 10:23:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,436
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10852023
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BleedMeAMelody/pseuds/BleedMeAMelody
Summary: “I punched the wrong guy,” Harry whispered in horror, the blood draining from his face. Niall nodded frantically in response, his expression nearly matching Harry’s. “Oh my god, I punched the wrong guy.”[or Harry tries to defend Niall's honor and it all backfires spectacularly]





	you’re all i want (so much it’s hurting)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Wek](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Wek/gifts).



> This is a birthday present for the always wonderful [Kelly](http://larrylikexo.tumblr.com). I hope it's everything you wanted, love, and that your day is all you hoped it could be! ily!
> 
> Please be gentle with me. This is the first thing I've written in years. I remember seeing the prompt on tumblr ages ago, so. Shout out to [Luiza](http://yourlookingatthesun.tumblr.com) for reading this over and assuring me it wasn't garbage. That being said, any and all mistakes are my own.
> 
> Title is from One Direction's Something Great, but y'all already knew that.

       Harry stretched out in the grass, enjoying the warm sunshine as it shone brightly on the quad. It was the first truly nice day of spring, and Harry, like the majority of the other university students, was taking advantage of it. He sighed contentedly, closed his eyes, and began humming a song that had been stuck in his head all morning, only to have his bliss interrupted minutes later as someone noisily sat down beside him. Without even opening his eyes, Harry immediately knew who it was.  
       “Hey Niall,” he said, greeting his best friend.  
       “Heya Harry,” Niall responded through a mouth full of crisps. Harry hoped the conversation would end there, allowing him to enjoy this rare moment of peace after a stressful morning of classes. Of course, this was not the case.  
       “You know, why even bother getting dressed if you’re just gonna leave your shirt open like that. It’s kinda obscene, really,” Niall asked, crumb spewing from his mouth. Immediately, Harry sat up, eyes snapping open as he leveled his best friend with a slightly hurt look.  
       “The birdies wanted some fresh air,” he said defensively, frowning down at the sparrows tattooed across his chest. While it was true that maybe he had a few more buttons undone than strictly necessary, Harry couldn’t really bring himself to care. Clothes were so constricting and unnecessary anyways. Everything would be much better if everyone was naked, in Harry’s opinion.  
       “I don’t look that bad, do I?” he asked, slightly self-conscious now, pout still on his lips. Niall snorted in response, reaching over to pat Harry’s curls. Harry beamed in satisfaction.  
       “Nah, Haz, you look fine,” he said fondly with a roll of his eyes and a wave of his hand. Silence settled back around the pair, but it didn’t last long, as was usual when Niall was around.  
       “How was class?” Niall inquired, still thoroughly invested in his crisps.  
       “It was alright. Same old, same old,” Harry replied dismissively with a sigh, “How was yours?” Niall was silent for a beat, which was strange in and of itself.        “It was fine,” he eventually responded quietly, causing Harry to raise his eyebrows at this best friend.  
       “Everything alright?” Harry asked slowly, watching Niall with concern, who only proceeded to shift restlessly where he was sitting.  
       “Yeah, it’s fine,” he said in the same quiet manner. Harry didn’t believe him for a second.  
       “What happened,” Harry asked warily, but Niall only shook his head adamantly, refusing to meet his eyes. Niall could be as stubborn as a mule when he felt like it, but, then again, so could Harry. It’s a wonder they got along so well.  
       “Niall,” Harry said firmly, waiting for his best friend to meet his eyes before continuing, “I am your best friend, and I’m gonna find out sooner or later. I only ask because I care, so please tell me what happened.” Niall sighed resignedly.  
       “It was Jack,” he eventually mumbled, immediately causing Harry’s eyes to narrow.  
       “Again?” he asked lowly. Niall winced at Harry’s tone before nodding sheepishly.  
       Without waiting to hear about what had happened this time, white hot rage began to coil in Harry’s stomach. “That’s it,” he seethed as he quickly pushed to his feet, nearly losing his balance and toppling into Niall who reached out to steady him, confusion replacing the trepidation on his face as he scrambled to stand as well.  
       “Where is he,” the words tumbling out of Harry’s mouth as more of a demand than a question, visibly startling Niall.  
       “It’s okay Haz, it’s not a big deal,” Niall tried to placate, bringing his hands out in front of him in a desperate attempt to calm his best friend.  
       “No, it is a big deal. It’s a huge fucking deal Niall,” Harry exploded, his hands clenching into fists at his sides. “It’s fucking 2017, for Christ’s sake! We’ve been dealing with this shit since primary school, and I’m sick and fucking tired of it. This is the last fucking straw.” Silence followed Harry’s outburst as Niall tried to remember how to make his mouth work. He stood there gaping in shock as a few people around them looked on in curiosity, their attention piqued.  
       Niall could count on one hand the number of times he could recall his best mate becoming this physically angry. He was usually so patient and kind, taking his time to understand a conflict rather than diving in headfirst. Except when Firefly was canceled. And of course, the time when they were six and Samuel Collins pushed Niall into the wood chips on the playground, sneering at his accent. Little Harry had puffed his chest out and bravely stood up for his new friend, telling Jack to stop being such a bully. Jack had just laughed, causing Harry’s little eyebrows to furrow as he aimed a good kick at the other boy’s kneecap. Even back then, though, Harry had terrible aim, and he ended up hitting the other boy directly between the legs. Samuel went down faster than he could cry for his mummy. Harry got a lengthy time out after being scolded by the teacher, but he and Niall had been inseparable ever since. The bullies never stopped, though, even now years later in university. They’d just gone through puberty and learned how to curse. The incidents were usually pretty small and unnoteworthy, things Niall had just written off as dicks being dicks. Harry, however, always had a tendency of being overprotective, taking Niall back to the playground all those years ago, except they weren’t six anymore, and Harry looked like he was about to murder someone in cold blood this time.  
       “Where is he, Niall,” Harry managed to get out through clenched teeth, his fingernails carving little crescents into his palms. Without even thinking, Niall raised his hand and shakily pointed, not wanting to upset Harry any further. If asked later, he’d blame the shock.  
       “He’s the short, brown-haired one in that group of guys over by that tree,” he rushed out, feeling out of breath even though he hadn’t really moved since their conversation had begun, except to stand up. His eyes flashed nervously between Harry and the boy in question, the alarm bells in his head sounding at a deafening volume as Harry’s eyes narrowed in determination and he began marching in the direction Niall had indicated.  
       “Harry wait!” he called to no avail as he hurried to stop his friend.  
       But Harry had genetics on his side, and Niall’s short legs just couldn’t keep up with Harry’s longer ones. Adrenaline pumping through his veins, Harry was on a warpath. No one was going to stop him from defending his best mate, not even the best mate himself. He cut quite the image, storming across the quad with his shirt half unbuttoned, long curly hair streaming behind him, eyes alight with the fire of a thousand burning suns, and an Irish boy running to keep up with him, pleading for him to stop.  
       He reached the group of boys in no time at all, but they were mostly turned away from him so they didn’t notice. Before he could think twice about it (or before Niall could try to stop him), he grabbed the shoulder of the boy Niall had pointed out, spun him around, and threw all of his weight into nailing him in the face. Luckily for Harry, and unluckily for the other boy, his aim rang true for once, and his fist connected squarely with the boy’s jaw, knocking him off balance and leaving him newly acquainted with the ground.  
       The others who had been standing in the group immediately crowded around Harry, yelling obscenities and invading his personal space. Chest heaving, the sound of blood pounding in his ears began to quiet as the adrenaline slowly started to wear off, allowing the other noises to come crashing over him all at once. Out of the chaos, Harry most clearly heard Niall’s voice.  
       “Harry, that’s not him - Harry!”  
       Harry froze, his eyes widening to nearly comical proportions. The others around him quieted, too, confused and curious about Niall’s words. Harry turned slowly to face Niall, who now looked pale and incredibly stricken.  
       “What?” Harry asked in a voice barely above a whisper, the blood draining from his face. Surely, he must’ve heard incorrectly.  
       Pointing at the figure still on the ground at Harry’s feet, Niall continued shouting hysterically despite the silence that had settled around them, “That’s not Jack!” Harry’s brain took a moment to process the statement as Niall pointed off in the distance and continued, “that’s Jack! You just punched the wrong guy!”  
       Slowly, Harry turned to look where Niall was now pointing. There, by a different tree, was in fact a short brown haired boy chatting to a group of people. Harry turned his gaze back to the boy he had just punched, now groaning and beginning to recover but still laid out in the grass. Harry blinked once, twice, three times, eyes still wide. He slowly looked back at Jack, still laughing by the tree and decidedly not suffering from Harry’s wrath. Harry blinked again.  
       The wind rustled the leaves in the trees, bringing a nice breeze to the relaxing students. Across the quad, someone was softly playing a guitar. A dog barked. Everyone around Harry was quiet, watching on in confusion as Harry continued to look between the person he had meant to punch and the one he actually had, trying (unsuccessfully) to come to terms with the fact that they were not in fact the same person. Suddenly, everything clicked and the gravity of the situation crashed upon him as his head whipped to look at Niall, realization etched upon his face.  
       “I punched the wrong guy,” He whispered in horror, the blood draining from his face. Niall nodded frantically in response, his expression nearly matching Harry’s. Harry looked between the body still lying on the ground in front of him, Jack, and back to Niall once more. “Oh my god, I punched the wrong guy,” he repeated.  
       “I’ll say you did,” came a muffled voice at his feet. Harry whipped his head back to the boy he had punched, who was now attempting stand back up. Immediately Harry scrambled to help him up, long fingers wrapping around his arms to keep him steady. “And you did a pretty bang up job of it, too. What are you, a bloody kangaroo?” the man asked incredulously as he finally managed to get to his feet, eyes closed and words slightly muddled as he continued to rub his jaw.  
       “What? No, I take boxing classes,” Harry mumbled distractedly, trying to asses the damage he had unintentionally inflicted (well, intentionally, just on the wrong person), “are you okay?” His hands flitted around restlessly, wanting to reach out and help the other boy but unsure if that was welcome such a situation. He had just punched the boy, after all. Harry’s panic continued to mount as his brain began rapidly creating increasingly dramatic and, frankly, unrealistic scenarios. What if he had broken the boy’s jaw? What if he ended up horridly disfigured and was forced to live out the rest of his life as a hermit? What if he wants revenge and punches Harry back? What if he breaks Harry’s jaw? What if Harry ended up horridly disfigured and was forced to live out the rest of his life as a hermit? What if he sues Harry? What if - Harry was torn from his rampant thoughts when the other man opened his eyes and finally moved his hands away from his face.  
       “Oops,” Harry said, breathless. His hands stopped their frantic movements and fell limply back to his sides. He stood there, frozen, as all thoughts of what just happened flew from his mind, replaced only with a mantra of _blue, blue, blue_. The stranger’s eyes were blue and framed by the softest looking eyelashes and Harry had never seen anything so beautiful. But then the other man opened his mouth, and wow his lips were pretty too.  
       “Hi,” he responded softly, and Harry distantly registered that he also sounded slightly breathless. Although, in all fairness, that could have been due to the punching. But his ( _blue, blue, blue_ ) eyes had yet to stray from Harry’s, and the tiniest of smiles had grown on his lips, and he didn’t look like he’s about to sue Harry for all he was worth, so maybe Harry wasn’t imagining things. They stayed like that for a few more minutes, gazes locked and breaths soft, until Niall coughed and jolted Harry out of his reverie.  
       “Are,” Harry started, struggling to function properly in the presence of such a beautiful human, “are you okay?” He finally got out earnestly, repeating his question from earlier.  
       “That depends, Curly,” the stranger replied after a moment, his eyes twinkling and his lips quirking up in a smirk as he tilted his head to the side, “do you have a habit of punching random strangers, or am I just special?” Somewhere behind him Niall groaned, but Harry’s brain was too busy short circuiting at the nickname to really give a damn. Was, was he flirting with him? It took a minute for Harry to realize that the other boy had in fact asked a question and was thus expecting an answer, and so he rushed to explain.  
       “No! To the punching people thing, not to you being special. You’re definitely special. Not that I’d punch you because of it. That’d be weird. Although, this is pretty weird, and we’ve just met, so I probably can’t judge your specialness, not that I’m doubting that you are, I just-” Harry cut himself off by taking a deep breath. He closed his eyes and focused on forming coherent sentences. He could do this. He could talk to the cute boy he’d accidentally punched on Niall’s behalf (and wow, that was a sentence he’d never thought about saying before). “My friend Niall,” he began again, gesturing to an embarrassed Niall, “was being harassed by some guy in one of his classes, which I absolutely will not stand for. Except, when Niall pointed him out to me, I thought he was you, hence the accidental punching.” He finished sheepishly. “Sorry about that, by the way. I really do hope you’re okay.” The other boy arched his eyebrows, and Christ, even that made Harry’s heartbeat stutter. He was so very, very fucked.  
       “Defending your friend’s honor, were you? Are you always this noble, Curly?” He asked, his smirk growing as Harry flushed and glanced down at his feet. And he’s, yes, he’s definitely flirting, Harry decided. Well, two could play at that game.  
       “Only when there’s cute boys involved,” Harry responded, looking at the other boy from underneath his lashes, a soft smile on his lips. Niall snorted and mumbled something that sounded a lot like “you’ve got to be fucking kidding me,” but Harry ignored his best friend in favor of watching the pretty blush blooming faintly across the stranger’s cheeks, making Harry’s smile grow wider. “‘m Harry,” he stated, holding his hand out.  
       “Louis,” the other boy replied, taking Harry’s hand in his own smaller one, and wow were they tiny. Harry never wanted to let go, wanted to feel them run through his hair and dance across his back and squeeze his hips. He lost track of how long they stood there, hands clasped between them and eyes glued to one another. It felt like everything else around them just melted away, leaving only that moment in time, Louis’ hand in his, and Harry felt something click in his chest. Something settling into place, like fate was giving him a wink and nudging him in the right direction, and suddenly it all felt like too much, like he’s going to burst any second with feelings he couldn’t quite name.  
       “Go out with me,” Harry rushed without thinking. Louis’ eyes widened ever so slightly, something Harry would’ve missed had he not spent the last five minutes staring at nothing but them. “I mean,” he hurried to tack on, “as a way to make it up to you for, you know, punching you in the face, and all. I know this great coffee shop a few blocks away.” It felt like time stood still as Harry subconsciously held his breath and waited for a response.  
       “I dunno, Curly,” Louis said, adopting a thoughtful look with a mischievous glint in his eyes. The hand that’s not still clasped in Harry’s came up to tap his chin thoughtfully, “I’m just so wounded over here. I mean, can’t you see my face? I’m not sure just coffee is going to be enough for me to forgive you.” And Harry’s heart sank for the briefest second before Louis continued, “You might just have to throw in dinner, too.” He winked at Harry then, his smile growing impossibly larger. Harry’s heart soared and he felt his dimples make an appearance as his own smile grew to match Louis’.  
       “I can do dinner,” and it shouldn’t have been this easy to fall into this boy he just met, to get swept away by blue eyes and soft hands and sharp smiles, but, inexplicably, it was. “Your injury looks pretty serious, though. I think it might need some immediate attention.” And before Harry could rethink his actions, he darted forward and pressed the faintest of kisses to the other boy’s cheek, lips just barely grazing the bruise that was beginning to blossom. He pulled away to see Louis’ eyes widen in shock and amazement.  
       “Better?” Harry found himself whispering, not wanting to disrupt the moment. His heart felt like it was about to beat straight out of his chest, and Harry spared a moment to think about possibly getting that checked out because it seriously could not be healthy, but then Louis was whispering “loads” right back at him, and he felt like he was on cloud fucking nine.  
       “Well, let’s go then” Harry said, tugging Louis in the direction of the coffee shop using their still entwined hands. They only made it a few steps, however, before Harry stopped short. Louis turned to look at him in surprise, eyebrows drawn together. He opened his mouth, to protest, no doubt, but Harry cut him off.  
       “Sorry! I forgot something, be right back!” Harry said hurriedly, spinning on his heel and marching in the direction they’d just come from. He bypassed Niall, who shouted something after him, but Harry didn’t hear, too focused on his current mission. Approaching the tree where Jack and his friends are still talking, Harry quickly grabbed the shorter boy by the shoulder, and in a move similar to the one he performed on Louis earlier, spun him around. Without hesitating for a second, he pulled his fist back and landed a punch right on Jack’s nose with a satisfying crunch, sending the other boy to the ground in a heap.  
       “Leave my friends the fuck alone, or there’s a lot more where that came from,” he snarled with fire in his eyes, before turning back around to see Louis still standing exactly where he’d left him. Even from a distance, he could see that Louis’ eyes had widened in shock and his jaw had dropped open. Harry giggled before practically skipping back over to him, pausing briefly to press a chaste kiss to Niall’s cheek as he passed, and locking their fingers together once more. He looked at the beautiful boy beside him and thanked his lucky stars for bringing them together, even if it was under such unusual circumstances.  
       “You good? No one else you need to punch then?” Louis asked amusedly with raised eyebrows. He waits for a still smiling Harry to nod before continuing, “You ready to go then?” And it feels like a much bigger question, like like they’re on the precipice of something greater, something new and exciting and terrifying all at once. Looking into those blue blue blue eyes, Harry swore he could fly. He didn’t even hesitate before answering, once again tugging Louis in the direction of the coffee shop.  
       “Yes, of course, always.”

 

(And in the future, when their kids ask how they met, Harry and Louis will look at each other with stars in their eyes as their lips stretch into impossibly wide smiles, and Harry will laugh as he tells them all about the day he accidentally punched Louis in the face for the sake of Niall’s honor.)

**Author's Note:**

> Come talk to me on [tumblr](http://lipsyncserenade.tumblr.com) or something


End file.
